


Dec0m11ss10ned

by RyMagnatar, ZeeCatfish



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Timeline/Universe, F/M, M/M, Sadstuck, rare-palepair, rarepair, the magic that happens when i chat with awesome people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-06
Updated: 2012-05-06
Packaged: 2017-11-04 22:13:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/398754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RyMagnatar/pseuds/RyMagnatar, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeeCatfish/pseuds/ZeeCatfish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate timeline where twelve trolls and four humans defeat a long lived empress and discover the second longest living troll left: the Helmsman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dec0m11ss10ned

It was over.

A sleek red ship gleamed in the burning sunlight.

The ground was stained with deep reddish purple. Royal purple. The highest of the caste system.

It was splattered with indigo, blue, green, yellow, another darker purple, brown, rust red, mutant red, human red.

A motherfucking rainbow miracle all around. A colorful map of a long and arduous battle. Bodies were numb, beaten, bruised and bleeding.

A lone once-heiress-now-empress stands at the feet of her ancestor, trembling and bleeding and weeping. She raises her hand to lift her goggles and wipe tears away. She looks down at the body, thin and lithe and beautiful in the way that a shark was- strong, powerful, confident and oh so deadly. Black hair like ink swirled with her red-purple blood and empty eyes stared up.

The new empress-not-yet-crowned stares down. She cannot look away. She cannot move.

There is a step towards her. A double horned psionic limps over. Mustard yellow blood drips down his face as he reaches her side. He sees her staring and frowns. He kneels down and closes the eyes of the dead troll. He hesitates only a moment before he untangles her crown from her hair and holds it up to the new empress.

She looks at it at first with horror and then curls her fingers around the cold metal. But she does not place it on her own head. She does not want it. She never wanted to rule over her friends.

She smiles, even though she’s spattered with blood and tired, and laughs as she plops the crown on his head instead. She takes his hand and squeezes it gently. He rolls his eyes and pulls off the crown. He drops it on the body and then leads her away.

She’s fussing over the wound on his head when shouting draws their attention. They look to their leader, short and wiry and with two handfuls of clenched rage around a pair of marred sickles. A half step back floats the John human in bright blue clothing splattered with blood.

“HOW THE FUCK IS THIS THING SUPPOSED TO EVEN OPEN WHAT KIND OF PIECE OF SHIT SHIP IS THIS.” The short troll yelled. He is beating down the hilt of his sickle upon the bright red metal.

The new empress giggles and walks over, her psionic mate at her side. She brushes past the short one and presses her hand upon the metal. There is a thrum in the ship as it recognizes her blood. A hiss of air and the door unseals from the wall and drops down to the ground. The interior is dark but lights glimmer inside.

She looks over her shoulder at the rag tag group of barely alive kids and smiles, gesturing for them to all come inside.

She may not want to be a leader, but her beckoning makes them rise and her smile makes them trust her and they follow the new empress into the strange ship.

* * *

The huntress is the one who finds him.

She is driven through restless need to explore and so she pries open the door and wriggles her way inside.

To her credit, she does not scream when she sees the troll that is more machine, more wired tentacles than he is troll. He bleeds from sightless eyes, his chest moves but no air moves through his throat, lights flicker around him and only serve to illuminate his bleeding, painfully thin, used up body. She creeps closer and then the small screen at the base of what was left of his torso (everything below swallowed in tentacle chords) flickers into life and the words flick across the screen.

_0bservat110n: y0u are not her_

_Query: pr0t0c0l d11ctates 11 ask y0u t0 11dent11fy y0urself f0r arch11v11ng purp0ses_

Her lips move as she reads the text, the quirk unusual but strangely familiar to him. Then she looks up at him with her big eyes, golden now but soon to be olive, and whispers, “Nepeta. I’m Nepeta Leijon. Who are you?”

_Resp0nse: 11 am Ψ110n11c 12212 helm11ng battlesh11p [Condescension’s Glory]_

Those curious eyes narrow briefly, instinctively at the sound of that name but she manages to bite back the growl. Shaking her head, she takes a step forward and declares, “That witch is dead! You don’t have to be trapped here anymore! Wait a moment and I’ll go get the others!”

_:Requesting clar11f11cat110n:_

Yet she was gone, racing down the halls and yowling out for the heiress, for the leader, for someone to come quickly. The cluster she gathers includes these two and several others. Her own tall moirail and the leader’s own palemate and the mate of the heiress. Others trail for a while, but when the huntress brings them to the small room, only three enter.

The new empress steps in first, uneasy. She sucks in a breath and presses a cool hand over her soft lips. She walks in deeper to the room, looking on in horror that widens her eyes and makes them prick with the pain of tears. The leader thumps in afterwards, growl cut short at what he sees. He takes a half step back when his eyes look up and he sees the face that is so alike but not quite that of his best friend.

The third is the huntress, coming up to the base of the chords and giving the Helmsman just a small smile. She has pain in her eyes, her emotions all over her features, from the pity to the horror to the grief. “Helmsman? I’ve brought Karkat and Feferi here. She’s the new empress! She took that witch’s place and Karkat is our leader. He is the _vfurry_ best leader there is.”

_Query: ss_

The three look on in confusion at him. The heiress looks to the leader and he steps forward. With a clench of his jaw, he lifts his chin and looks into the face of the Helmsman. He scowls as kindly as he can and snarls, “Explain what the fuck you mean with that double S shit.”

_Clar11f11cat11on: 11 was 11nqu11r11ng whether y0u were an 0ld aqu11ntance g011ng by that sh0rthand_

_C0mment: n0 need t0 be a d11ck ab0ut 11t m11dget_

Leader splutters. Huntress giggles behind her hand and the young new empress relaxes her shoulders. She reaches a hand out to her companion and smiles to him. This sooths him, but only a little, so he turns his head back and snaps, “You’re the one being a dick. But that isn’t my short hand.” He looks over the Helmsman and adds a little softer, “I have a friend a lot like you who gave me the short hand KK.”

“Should we ask Sollux to come in here?” The empress glubs softly as she asks.

_Resp0nse: y0ure the 0ne wh0 started w11th the 11nsults nubn11cker_

The giggles from the females are stifled but the leader glares hard at them until they go silent. He eventually shakes his head. “No. I’ll talk with him. I don’t want Sollux to see this,” he spoke softly to her. “I’ll figure out what is going on. You two don’t need to stay if you don’t wish it.”

Slight nods and footsteps and then the Signless reborn looks up alone to the Helmsman and prepares for a conversation he never thought he would have the chance to have.

* * *

“He wants to die.”

The words are soft. All the hard edges are worn away from his form. He sits, half curled up, in the lap of the indigo blooded enforcer. In a circle around him sit several others and the rest fill out the room. His voice is as low as they have ever heard it, tired and gentle. “He’s been alive for thousands of sweeps. Longer than anyone of his blood color should be alive. She kept him alive all these years just to power her ship…”

“We can’t,” the empress leans forward, fierce and passionate. “We can’t just murder him, strip him completely of his life!”

“His life is already stripped away. Even if we managed to pull him out of there and _that_ didn’t fucking kill him then what? Feferi, his whole body is torn apart except for the most essential things! He won’t survive for one damn second!”

“We will find a way! He deserves life!”

The fire was started back in the leader. He leaned forward and not even the soothing hand of his palemate could stop his voice from rising.

As the argument rose, the crowned gunner slid from the doorway and down the corridor, alone.

* * *

“I’vve read about the rebellion.”

The prince doesn’t look to the face of the Helmsman. He can’t bring himself to yet. He looks down at the monitor while he talks.

_C0rrect110n: 11t was a rev0lut110n n0t a rebell110n f11shl11ps_

His lips twist into something between a smirk and a sneer. “Wwell it didn’t wwork. Not wwhen the Signless wwas around and not years later wwhen Mindfang and the Summoner tried. But you knoww that, bein here and all.” He gestures to the wires and tubing, the machine that the Helmsman was hooked up to.

_Query: are y0u tell11ng me th11s s0lely t0 pr0ve y0ur 0wn d0uchebaggery 0r d0 y0u have a fuck11ng p011nt_

“Of course I havve a fuckin point to this, cod, you’re just as much as a dick as Sol.” He shakes his head and then frowns deeply, “Anywway I just came to say that wwhatevver you told Kar, Fef is goin to talk him down and they wwont kill you. They’re goin to try and put you into a bot like Aradia wwas.”

_Resp0nse: y0u have g0t t0 be fuck11ng k11dd11ng me_

_Query: what 11s the p011nt_

_Query: d11d 11 at any p011nt 11n t11me g11ve 0ff the 11mpress110n 11 wanted t0 be transferred from g11ant lump 0f metal t0 t11n can_

“Fuck if I knoww. Fef just doesn’t wwant to sea anyone else die and Kar wwill fight her but she’s Fef.” His tone darkens as his thoughts go to memories, “She alwways gets her wway evventually. But that’s wwhy I’m here wwhile they fight about it. I’m not goin to fuckin wwait around for a bunch of tired as ass trolls and humans to decide on the wworst fuckin option.”

_Statement: s0 y0u c0me rub salt 11n my 0ld w0unds h0w magnan11m0us_

_C0mment: tell them 11 d0nt want the11r funky t11n can 11m t00 0ld f0r th11s sh11t_

“Dammit, for bein so fuckin old and part freaky space ship you’re so fuckin dense!” His loud voice bounces around the small room but instead of flinching from the sound of his anger, it just makes him more determined. He flicks his gaze up to the face of the Helmsman, non-responsive as it is, and growls, “Tell me howw I can kill you in the least fuckin painful wway possible.”

_Statement: my nerv0us system g0t fucked up a l0ng t11me ag0 11 cant feel jack sh11t_

The prince nods, made confident in those words. “So is there a plug or somefin I should pull on you? Do you havve some particular wway you’vve thought about dyin?” He was going to do this. He was going to make this happen. No one would go against Feferi and Karkat’s eventual decision after it was made but him. No one else would make this choice against them.

_Resp0nse: 11ve spent m0re t11me th11nk11ng ab0ut dy11ng than y0uve spent l11v11ng_

The prince gives a wry smirk at that. There was no doubt to him that the Helmsman spoke true.

_Statement: 11 d0nt have an 0ff butt0n but 11 have 0rgans that are s0mewhat funct110n11ng_

_Suggest110n: g0 f0r the head_

He sucks in a breath, holding it for a moment before releasing it. In the same motion he pulls his rifle out and holds it in his hands. “Anyfin you wwant to say? Or I guess tell us before you go?” His hands tighten on the rifle but he keeps it pointed down.

_Statement: s0 l0ng and thanks f0r all the f11sh_

_C0mment: that was a j0ke_

_Statement: hug each 0ther m0re 0ften curb the cull11ng sess110ns and st0p be11ng assh0les t0 the l0wer s11de 0f the ra11nb0w_

_C0mment: that r0ughly summar11ses the message 11ve been keep11ng safe 11n my mem0r11es_

Raising his rifle, he laughs. It’s a hopeful, sort of bubbly thing, but when he stops he looks up with a pained expression. “Nothin I can say wwill make up for the shit my side of the rainbow,” he tries not to smirk when he says that and fails, “did to yours, but I’ll still say it because it needs to be said.”

He pulls his left hand off the rifle and salutes, a gesture he learned for a life he was no longer going to go into, for a military that the Helmsman was the last (unwilling) participant of. “I’m sorry. I’m so fuckin sorry. Please rest in peace wwith those you called your cohorts and pitied ones and I swwear I wwon’t let this shit happen again as long as I fuckin livve.”

Hand on the gun again, he aimed for the Helmsman’s head and pulled the trigger. There was a flash of light and the sound of flesh and bone splattering, wires cutting, and then the light was gone.

Seconds later, the ship’s power shut off.

In the darkness, the gun was lowered and his voice was small, resigned, “Heh. They are goin to be so fuckin pissed about this.” His feet shuffled on the ground and he blindly reached up a hand. Fingers and claws ran up chord and gently touched the skin, still warm from blood and mechanics. Unseen, the lone gun-wielding troll smiled. He didn’t regret it for a second.  

**Author's Note:**

> some minor clarification: i tagged both as psiioniic and helmsman because i could even though i only refer to him as helmsman in this and i have absolutely no regrets for shipping eridanhelmsman/psionic.


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